(AllHipHop News) On April 8th Ice Cube and N.W.A. take over Brooklyn, NY for their induction into the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame.
Joining N.W.A. in the 2016 Class are Cheap Trick, Chicago, Deep Purple, Steve Miller and Bert Berns (Non-performer Category) according to the Rock Hall’s website.
As his induction to the Rock Hall draws closer, Ice Cube spoke with the Cleveland Plain Dealer about N.W.A.’s music and how its still relevant today with issues of police brutality in the news daily.
“When you put something on people’s radar and plant a seed in their mind, it might take some time for that seed to germinate and grow,” Cube explained.
“When we did ‘F*** Tha Police,’ the police could do no wrong in a court of law,” he explained. “Now, after that song, police are held just as accountable.
Because of those lyrics N.W.A. is the fifth Hip-Hop act to kick in the door at the Rock Hall, joining Grandmaster Flash and The Furious Five, Run-D.M.C., the Beastie Boys and Public Enemy. Ice Cube and N.W.A. were chosen by more than 800 voters of the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame Foundation in combination with results from the Rock Hall’s online fan vote.
“We put this on people’s minds years ago, and now you have a generation of people who are looking very closely at how the police act and work,” he added.
Cube also took the time to revert to a Higher Learning like mind-state and spoke in reference to the Tamir Rice case in which a 12 year old Cleveland boy was gunned down by police in 2014.
“Nobody values Black life,” he said, in reference to Cleveland’s Tamir Rice case. “That’s why we keep revisiting it.
“Everybody believes a Black life is cheaper than a White life, whether they admit it or not, and that’s really the core.
“It ain’t looking at the police, it ain’t looking at the man who’s a racist, it’s looking at ourselves,” said the legendary West Coast Gangsta rapper.
The comments come on the heals of a strong promotional run for his movie Barbershop: The Next Cut, which is the 4th installment in his series of Barbershop films. During the interviews Cube explained how he wanted to maintain the comedy theme, but also address the violence in Chicago with Black on Black violence.
More on the 2016 Rock and Roll Hall of Fame Induction ceremony as details emerge about the live stream and other special guest performances.
